
When is it OK to go shirtless? What time can you start drinking on holiday? And can you ask a stranger to apply your sunscreen? Experts explain the behaviour that’s hot this summer – and what’s really, really not
Summer means a loosening of rules and norms. Eating with your fingers is suddenly encouraged, near-nakedness is everywhere and a 6am airport pint is unremarkable. It’s a hot, sticky recipe for social chaos and – if you share my view on showing off ungroomed feet – possibly the end times of human civilisation. Here, then, is everything you need to know about summer etiquette.
Continue reading...The actors Lindsay Duncan and Charles Dance, alongside director Peter Webber, pay tribute to a practical joker, unpretentious craftsman and ‘very cool guy’
Lindsay Duncan, co-star, Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983) and Blackbird (2019)
Continue reading...He was elected mayor of Istanbul in 2019, and had announced his candidacy for the 2028 presidential elections. But Ekrem İmamoğlu is now behind bars, and his trial, on charges including fraud and organised crime, could take 12 years
This piece first appeared in the Dial
There’s a Turkish saying, “Silivri soğuktur”: Silivri is cold. You’ll hear it from journalists, politicians and activists after they say something critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government. The kind of comments that could send them to the notorious prison complex in Silivri, where it would take months before they saw a judge.
For decades, Silivri was considered a “sayfiye yeri”, a place for cottages, country and summer houses. All around the complex are small family-run farms and villas with private pools, protected by watchdogs. Construction of the Marmara Prison complex began in 2005 and lasted three years. It contains eight closed correctional institutions and an open prison where the court is located. It is Europe’s largest prison complex.
Continue reading...The new BBC documentary is so wondrous and awe-inspiring it will make you feel like a child again – and in Chris Packham, it has a presenter for the ages
Evolution is a coronation. With this new, five-part BBC nature documentary, the presenter Chris Packham is effectively crowned the successor to David Attenborough. And a worthy one, I think most would agree.
Packham has all the great man’s passion for his subject and the willingness and ability to share his knowledge as accessibly as possible. He treads the line between assuming nothing and not infantilising his audience as nimbly as Attenborough does.
Continue reading...Love’s Labour’s Lost offers a heady mix of passion and death – which makes the Spanish art form a perfect match, says director Indiana Lown-Collins. Our writer joins the theatre’s flamenco bootcamp
On a heatwave day in London, Shakespeare’s Globe has turned into a fiesta. Hard-heeled boots strike the wooden boards with rat-a-tat rhythm, skirts swish, a guitar strums, voices rise along with the temperature. Perched in front of the stage is director Indiana Lown-Collins, who is zhooshing up one of Shakespeare’s wordiest plays with a hot flourish of flamenco.
Lown-Collins is half-Spanish and grew up in Spain where flamenco was her way into the arts. Working as resident associate director at the Globe a few years ago, she fell in love with the building and its acoustics and couldn’t stop thinking how well flamenco would work on its oak stage, ringing around the circular space. “I just knew it would sound incredible,” she says.
Continue reading...After a wild attack on the media, Reform’s deputy leader joins other MPs in the Commons offering tributes rather than speculation
This is the third murder of either a sitting or former MP that I’ve covered in the last 10 years. It doesn’t get any easier or less shocking. Every death diminishes us all. The least you would hope is for politicians to behave with dignity. To set an example. For those who knew Ann Widdecombe to express their personal loss, for party leaders and ministers to convey the horror of her death and offer their condolences to her family and friends. Probably best for everyone else to say as little as possible for now.
The police have asked for everyone to refrain from speculating about the motives of the suspect, who, as of Monday lunchtime, was still being questioned by counter-terrorism officers, and not to politicise the murder if possible. A time for our political class to behave like grownups. And the overwhelming majority have done that. Just for now, even Nigel Farage has stopped acting as if he were the detective leading the investigation by offering his insights to every passing TV crew, and has fallen silent.
Continue reading...Shock development based on ‘new information and evidence’ renews debate over security of politicians
British counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation into the death of the former MP and Reform spokesperson Ann Widdecombe in a shock development that has renewed the debate over the security of politicians.
Widdecombe’s body was found with serious injuries by the ambulance service at her home in Haytor Vale, Devon, at 11.40am on Thursday. A 28-year-old man from Rotherham is being held in custody on suspicion of her murder.
Continue reading...Analysis of 12 indicators including asthma, obesity and vaccination finds child health is ‘national embarrassment’
Children in the UK will grow up to be one of the unhealthiest generations in decades, with child health outcomes having declined or stalled completely across all areas, a group of leading paediatricians has said.
Reduced vaccination rates alongside rising hospital admissions for asthma and mental health disorders are all contributing factors to the UK’s record on children’s health, which should be seen as a “national embarrassment”, their analysis has found.
Continue reading...Additional 27 nominations mean it is impossible for any other candidate to launch leadership challenge
Andy Burnham is to become Britain’s next prime minister after winning the backing of 349 Labour MPs, including all eligible members of Keir Starmer’s current cabinet, making it impossible for any rival to secure enough nominations to challenge him.
The new MP for Makerfield received an extra 27 nominations on Monday, taking his total from 322 last week to 349. With only 54 MPs yet to back him, including Starmer and Shabana Mahmood, who cannot nominate because of her role as national executive committee (NEC) chair, no other candidate can now reach the 81 nominations needed to enter the contest.
Continue reading...Government had been forced to pay back duties to companies that imported goods into the US that were hit by Trump’s tariffs
The US government has already paid back tens of billions of dollars in tariffs it collected before the supreme court ruled them illegal, according to budget figures released on Monday.
Tariffs – taxes on imported goods – have been a key part of president Donald Trump’s game economic plan since he took office again last year.
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